Tricks for Timing

[PeteBooth]

BigUmp56]Are there any tricks some of you wiley old vets of this forum use to improve and help keep consistant your timing while calling balls and strikes?

I don't mean the old "read the mitt logo" either. I'm looking for something you use that may be unique.

Thanks,

Tim.

For the most part if you have 2 good F1's around the plate = a good plate performance. It's difficult to have any kind of good timing etc. when F1 is 'all over the place" then all of a sudden "paints the corner"

Jon Bible gave excellent advice about the strike zone.

1. Every Pitch is a strike until proven otherwise

2. Treat the strike zone like a "window" If the ball is in the window = strike


Pete Booth

[waltjp]

Originally Posted by PeteBooth

For the most part if you have 2 good F1's around the plate = a good plate performance. It's difficult to have any kind of good timing etc. when F1 is 'all over the place" then all of a sudden "paints the corner"

Were you at my game on Friday night?

The starting pitcher for the visitors was all over the place and when he wasn't walking batters he was serving up belt high fastballs that were either bobbled, booted, thrown away or not fielded due to lack of any sort of effort by his teammates.

10-1 after 2
17-4 final after 4 1/2

I've always said it's games like this where you earn your money.

[Publius]

Originally Posted by PeteBooth

Jon Bible gave excellent advice about the strike zone.

1. Every Pitch is a strike until proven otherwise


Pete Booth

If that advice is excellent, here's some that's awesome:

No pitch is either a ball or a strike until after it reaches the catcher's mitt.

A bias or predisposition toward a certain outcome might lead to quicker games. It certainly leads to an improper zone if you want to advance in adult baseball (college-aged and older).

Bible's advice might be OK for established umpires, although I find that partners who follow it tend to have strike zones that are unfairly large. Beginners who follow that advice are practically guaranteed that result, and they make enough mistakes in that direction as it is.

I don't know who said it, but I think it's sometimes attributed to Doug Harvey:

"The batter's got a right to make a living, too."

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by Publius

If that advice is excellent, here's some that's awesome:

No pitch is either a ball or a strike until after it reaches the catcher's mitt.

A bias or predisposition toward a certain outcome might lead to quicker games. It certainly leads to an improper zone if you want to advance in adult baseball (college-aged and older).

Bible's advice might be OK for established umpires, although I find that partners who follow it tend to have strike zones that are unfairly large. Beginners who follow that advice are practically guaranteed that result, and they make enough mistakes in that direction as it is.

I don't know who said it, but I think it's sometimes attributed to Doug Harvey:

"The batter's got a right to make a living, too."

I must have read Jon Bible's column in Referee Magazine too when I first started out, because that has always been my philosophy. It isn't a bias or a predisposition to calling it one way or the other. I would still always track the pitch into the glove, and then make my determination based on the final outcome. I endeavored never to ever judge a pitch early. But I learned that the baseball comes in on a railroad track, and that track is a "strike." If anything derails the ball off the track, it then is considered a "ball." But it is definitely a strike leaving the pitcher's hand. But as we all know, that can change rather quickly. . .

[GarthB]

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve

I must have read Jon Bible's column in Referee Magazine too when I first started out, because that has always been my philosophy. It isn't a bias or a predisposition to calling it one way or the other. I would still always track the pitch into the glove, and then make my determination based on the final outcome. I endeavored never to ever judge a pitch early. But I learned that the baseball comes in on a railroad track, and that track is a "strike." If anything derails the ball off the track, it then is considered a "ball." But it is definitely a strike leaving the pitcher's hand. But as we all know, that can change rather quickly. . .

With all respect to Jon, I prefer the old adage: the pitch is nothing until I call it. I have no bias towards ball or strike until it hits the golve.

[UmpLarryJohnson]

i work with a umpire whose creedo is, get em to 2 strikes as soon as you can (assuming the batter doesnt hit it first!). he calls a b i g zone to get the batter to 2strikes as fast as he can then he calls a REAL strikezone if you get what im sayin. he says this sppeeds the game and gets batterss swinging.

is this a good idea? im not realy comfertable with it.


(Whew see no big caps this time!)

[GarthB]

Originally Posted by UmpLarryJohnson

i work with a umpire whose creedo is, get em to 2 strikes as soon as you can (assuming the batter doesnt hit it first!). he calls a b i g zone to get the batter to 2strikes as fast as he can then he calls a REAL strikezone if you get what im sayin. he says this sppeeds the game and gets batterss swinging.

is this a good idea? im not realy comfertable with it.


(Whew see no big caps this time!)

So he purposefully changes the strike zone not only during the game, but during the same at bat. And you're asking if this is a good idea?

Wow.